Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)
Pagellus erythrinus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Pagellus erythrinus (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body oblong; upper profile of head straight; snout conical; eye diameter much shorter than snout. Occipital scales extending forwards to the anterior edge of eye; molar teeth in 2 3 (4) upper, 2 (3) lower series; gillrakers 8-10 lower, 5-6 upper. D XII + 10 11; A 111 + 8-9. Lateral line scales 55 65 to caudal base. Colour: bright pink with small blue spots scattered on upper part of sides; upper edge of opercle carmine; a reddish spot on pectoral base; inside of mouth whitish or greyish; sometimes a dark red mark at bases of last dorsal rays; the transverse red bands mentioned in the literature are a fright coloration. Size: to 60 cm SL, usually 20-25 cm.
Habitat: inshore waters, demersal on various bottoms (rocks, gravels, sand, mud) to 200 m (Mediterranean) or 300 m (Atlantic); more common between 20 and 100 m; inhabits deeper waters in winter; young near the coast. Gregarious. Food: omnivorous, mainly carnivorous (benthic invertebrates, small fish). Reproduction: according to hydrological conditions, spawning from spring to autumn; possibly.two spawning periods in the southern Mediterranean; no spawning in Black Sea and in the waters of northern Europe; mostly hermaphroditic protogynous; maturity at 1-2 years; fecundity 31,000-151,000 (16-31 cm)
Distribution: common throughout Mediterranean; rare in Black Sea; in Atlantic, common from Brittany to the Cape Verde Is., Madeira and the Canaries; very rare northwards, but recorded in Scandinavia.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Raffaele, 1888: 23 | Ehrenbaum, 1905: 21 | Lo Bianco, 1909: 737 | Bounhiol and Pron, 1916: 141 | Ranzi, 1930: 407-416; 1933: 341, pl. 24 (fig. 1-11) | Vodyanitzki and Kazanova, 1954: fig. 21(2 fig.).
Otoliths (sagitta). Shepherd, 1910a: 57, fig. 6; 1915b: 261, fig. 18 | Sanz EcheverrÃa, 1926: 153, fig. 4445; 1929: 76, pl. 6 (fig. 2) | Frost, 1927: 300, pl. 5 (fig. 14) | Chaine, 1937: 108, pl. 11.